Strategy, Research & Planning

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  Process Before Goals in Content Marketing

  It might sound odd coming from someone in a metrics-driven field like digital marketing, but sometimes goals – like tracking KPIs and other metrics – can get in the way of real progress. I’m not suggesting that you abandon metrics entirely, over even mostly. What I am suggesting is there’s great value in balancing the goals…MORE >

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  Social Proof and Reputation Management as Part of Your Digital Marketing

  A bit more than a year ago, we found out we had competition. Of course, we’ve always had competition from other digital marketers and web developers. Now, we had competition for our name. The Motorola Employees Credit Union decided to change its name to Andigo Credit Union. (We weren’t offended when the general consensus of…MORE >

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  Making Your B2B Marketing GDPR Compliant

  You don’t have to be based in the EU to run afoul of the sweeping new regulations that cover data privacy and permissions for EU residents. More concerning is the lack of buzz we’re hearing from marketers. Plenty of pundits talking about what compliance will require, but not a lot of action, particularly at anything…MORE >

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  Productive Website Marketing Requires Planning

  Building a website that is a productive part of your marketing toolkit requires planning. Here is a template you can open in Powerpoint or a similar presentation program to create a site map and wireframes for your new site. These documents, along with a Strategy Statement and Functional Specifications, will ensure that the site you…MORE >

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  Check Your Scorecard: How Does Your Marketing Performance Measure Up?

  Last fall, we published a brief article that include a link to our digital marketing audit scorecard. That piece has proven to be one of our more popular posts, so we’d like to revisit the ideas raised there. Measure Over Time Most importantly, we should stress that a marketing audit isn’t a one-and-done proposition. If…MORE >

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  How Your Website Analytics Should Guide Your Marketing Content

  Talk about walking the walk! I am writing this post after reviewing analytics data from the Andigo website and learning what you – our audience – are most interested in. I recommend you do the same. It’s a little tough to do with raw data. For example, you can look at data from the whole year, but…MORE >

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  Sales Matter, but There are Other KPIs for Your Content Marketing

  Ideally, you have a system in place that allows you to connect the content your prospects consume with the progress they make through your funnel and, ultimately, the sales that are generated. That’s where the rubber meets the road and generating leads that create revenue is the most important role marketing plays. Your marketing efforts…MORE >

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  The Dangers of Echo Chambers and Walled Gardens for Marketers

  Go where your customers are. If that’s not one of the Top Ten pieces of marketing advice ever, I can’t imagine what is. And yet … A few months ago, Facebook made a move to promote its private groups. You can read about one reporter’s experience in joining dozens of these groups in this New…MORE >

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  What Should Your Website’s Marketing Goals Be?

  Just having a website isn’t going to win you business any more than just having a business card will. Knowing what you need your website to do is critical to its success as a hub in your marketing program. Let’s start with a caveat. We are talking here about marketing-focused websites. Your website may be…MORE >

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  Marketing Starts with Business Strategy

  Marketing, whether the digital marketing that we focus on or marketing more broadly, is about a whole lot more than sell sheets and social media. As Target Marketing Editor-in-Chief Thorin McGee put it recently, “Marketing starts [with] business strategy.” In other words, if you’ve isolated yourself in some marketing silo that only every once in…MORE >